Prime Minister at the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference

Prime Minister António Costa will attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference on Friday and Saturday (1 and 2 December) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 

More than 150 world leaders have confirmed they will attend COP 28. António Costa will be delivering his speech on Saturday afternoon. 

Portugal is boosting its institutional presence at this Climate Change Conference with a National Pavilion, holding true to its commitment taken during COP 27 around a year ago (held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt). This is the first time Portugal has its own pavilion at these conferences; in previous Editions, it used the European Union common space.

The pavilion programme can be viewed on www.portugalcop28.com.

The Portuguese Pavilion will be opened on Friday in a ceremony presided over by the Prime Minister with the Minister of Environment and Climate Action, Duarte Cordeiro. Next, there will be a ceremony for signing the Financial Commitment Agreement with the Green Climate Fund (GCF) for the 2024/2027 cycle. The GCF is the largest climate fund on a global scale dedicated to helping developing countries improve their capacity to respond to climate change. 

Still on Friday afternoon, an addendum to the Memorandum on Reconverting the Debt between Portugal and Cape Verde will be signed by the Portuguese Prime Minister and his Portuguese counterpart, Ulisses Correia e Silva. A ceremony focusing on "exchanging debt for climate funding: How Portugal and Cape Verde wish to take the lead in the green transition". We note that on 20 August, the two Prime Ministers signed in Lisbon the agreement where Portugal took on the commitment to finance a climate fund to the sum of 12 million euros.

António Costa explained at the time that the 12 million, the debt to paid by Cape Verde by 2025, will be included in an environment and climate fund for the State of Cape Verde to invest in the country’s green transition. "In 2025, we will assess the success of this operation. We are certain that it will be a positive assessment and we will be able to broaden this mechanism to the remaining debt in full until its maturity and in all this will be around 140 million euros" António Costa stressed at the time.

Until 10 December, the Portuguese Pavilion will house more than 20 events, from the energy transition in cities to sustainable mobility, from the new materials in the era of climate change to the role of green hydrogen. Initiatives and debates driven by State bodies and NGOs, such as the Gulbenkian Foundation, the Blue Ocean Foundation, or the Zero association. The programme of events in the Portuguese Pavilion can be viewed HERE.

In the last two days of COP28, on 11 and 12 December, and just as the case with the other pavilions, the Portuguese space will be open for the negotiations under the conference, but without events.  COP28 (Conference of the Parties) is an initiative hosted by the United Nations that brings together almost all of the countries in the world with a view to adopting measures to fight climate change.